Certain electronic systems can be exposed to electrical overstress events, or electrical signals of short duration having rapidly changing voltage and high power. Electrical overstress events can include, for example, electrostatic discharge (ESD) events arising from the abrupt release of charge from an object or person to an electronic system.
Electrical overstress events can damage or destroy integrated circuits (ICs) by generating overvoltage conditions and high levels of power dissipation in relatively small areas of the ICs. High power dissipation can increase IC temperature, and can lead to numerous problems, such as gate oxide punch-through, junction damage, metal damage, and surface charge accumulation.